Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the comments by the Reform member who just spoke, and I believe he is right. If we were to follow the logic of the people across the way, why elect a parliament, why elect 301 members to this House? It would be a lot less expensive, a lot less costly to elect the nine supreme court justices and to ask them, as they have the monopoly of truth, to legislate as they see fit, which might not always be how the people really want it.
I think it runs contrary to reality to claim, as the member across the way—for whom I have the greatest respect by the way—is doing, that the House must listen to the dictates of the courts, be they high courts, medium courts or low courts. I believe we must give back to parliament its full authority, including defining a couple.
If we define a legal marriage through legal means, in the near future—I guess this is my question to the member for Kelowna—are we not going to create legal children? Or are we going to come up with legal creations which are not anchored in reality? This is the danger. We know people who are living together, who are not in a sexual relationship, but who are economically dependent on each other.
In my riding, there is a brother, of very sound mind, who will have to support his younger brother who is mentally deficient. I had breakfast with him on Saturday and he told me “Why would it not apply to me when I die? I am single, I will never marry, I will never have children, I have only my brother to support. Why could I not see to it that he is looked after, just as they are going to do for same sex couples?” This is why I have great difficulty with this bill.